Australia opt for fielding coach before Ashes

The Australians took another step in their preparation to regain the Ashes later this year when they appointed Mike Young, a former baseball coach from America, as a fielding consultant for the next year. Young will be a part-time consultant and will work with the Australian side over the next 12 months as they attempt to wrest back the Ashes at home and then win the World Cup in the West Indies in 2007.

"Mike will be working across a number of programs within Australian cricket with his area of expertise in fielding and throwing," Michael Brown, Cricket Australia's cricket operations general manager, was quoted as saying by AAP. "However his coaching background in baseball also adds much value in terms of his general coaching knowledge." Young will be based at CA's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane.

Australia's poor catching was a huge factor in their losing the Ashes 2-1 in England last year. In all, they dropped 17 catches, the most significant being the let-off offered by Shane Warne to Kevin Pietersen in the last Test at The Oval. Pietersen, then on 15, went on to make 158 as England ended up saving the Test and sealing the series.

Young, who had worked with the Australian one-day squads over the last six years, wasn't around during the Ashes, but Cricket Australia denied that this move was atonement for past errors. "It's not about looking back -- we did that when we did the review of the Ashes program and made the changes we did," Brown told The Age, an Australian daily - Australia appointed two assistant coaches and an IT analyst after the series. "It's more about looking forward, how do we manage the requirements of our team given the uniqueness of the six or seven month period ... You've got to remember during the Ashes we also had Jamie Siddons, who was probably one of the best fielders Australia has ever seen.

"What we will do is use him [Young] a little bit more in the summer around the lead-in to the preparation for the Champions Trophy and the Ashes, and of course he'll come back in for the VB Series and the World Cup."